...I live on the east coast and my one friend lives in Floydsknobs, IN. We were talking contests. He pointed out to me that for a stateside contest he is much better off where he is compared to where I am. How true. To my east.....water. For him no matter what direction he looks, he has lots of state side stations that he can work.
Of course, a station on the coast can use a beam pointed inland
without missing too many stations. (We can always work KH6
and KL7 regardless of our antenna, due to the shorter path
lengths.)
But it is a function of both direction and distance. Here in
Oregon we have to work longer distances to contact the
same number of stations as a station on the East coast.
And Indiana can work both coasts on single-hop paths,
while we need two hops to cover the East coast.
All of those are factors to be considered if you are trying
to optimize for maximum contacts, or just see how many
states you can work.